1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television receiver which controls electric apparatuses other than the television receiver, and a method of controlling the other electric apparatuses using the television receiver.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electric apparatuses provided in a home such as an air conditioner, a video receiver such as a television set, and an illuminating lamp are made operable by respective remote controllers. Namely, an operation of each electric apparatus is controlled by allowing a user who uses the apparatus to operate the remote controller to thereby transmit a control code by radio.
Conventionally, there is known a technique for causing a plurality of electric apparatuses controlled by respective remote controllers to operate successively with one another (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-186067).
In the conventional method of causing a plurality of electric apparatuses to operate successively, a personal computer other than the electric apparatuses is employed for control. A radio transmission unit is connected to this personal computer, and a control code is transmitted to each electric apparatus from the radio transmission unit, thereby controlling the electric apparatus.
Further, according to this conventional art, the control code for controlling each electric apparatus is acquired from a website provided by a manufacturer of the electric apparatus over the Internet.
Therefore, it is disadvantageously necessary to provide the control personal computer other than the electric apparatuses to operate, and also prepare dedicated software for acquiring the control codes for the respective electric apparatuses. As a result, an entire system is disadvantageously made large in scale and complicated.